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Frank Deasy

Published Monday 2 November 2009 at 18:20 by Michael Quinn

Frank Deasy’s Emmy Award in 2006 for his valedictory script for the Prime Suspect series created by Lynda La Plante gave international recognition to a writer whose profile in the UK and his native Ireland was already solid, secure and growing.

His first significant film was 1991’s BAFTA-nominated The Grass Arena, directed by Gillies MacKinnon for the BBC and starring Mark Rylance as the son of an abusive, alcoholic father. Two more films followed for the Corporation - Captives (1994) and 1998’s Robert Carlyle vehicle Looking After Jo Jo, the latter earning Deasy an RTS Television Award nomination.

Hollywood beckoned briefly in 2001 with an adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s book Prozac Nation. A Canadian horror film The Rats followed, before a return to the BBC with the crime dramas Real Men (2003) and England Expects (2004).

Prime Suspect - The Final Act concluded ITV’s seven-series franchise in 2006, before Deasy returned to the BBC for last year’s four-part biblical drama The Passion. Another four-parter, Father and Son, made for Irish broadcaster RTE and not yet seen in the UK, boldly confirmed Deasy’s gift for writing what Ronald Bergan lauded as “gritty, intelligent, atmospheric dramas with street cred”.

Gaza, his last completed script for the BBC, was due to start filming in October and would have reunited him with Prime Suspect star Helen Mirren. A series on the Medici dynasty for BBC Films and a century-spanning family saga for RTE remain unfinished.

Born in Dublin on May 19, 1959, Deasy moved to Glasgow in 1997. Diagnosed with cancer of the liver in January, he led a successful public campaign in Ireland to raise the number of organ donors. He died, aged 50, on September 17 and is survived by his wife and three children.

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